Too Late
by Vivere Sine Timore
Summary: Natara heard the crack of what sounded like thunder. She saw Mal jerk backwards, his blue shirt slowly turning red. She saw his legs buckle beneath him and heard his limp body hit the floor. One-shot T just cause.


AN: Alright, I know I'm supposed to be working on Hopeless but I got this idea, and it was just circling around in my head and I couldn't get to go away. So I got it down on paper, and this is the result. Tell me what you think! Please.

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><p>Natara whipped out her gun and took careful aim at the man. She gripped it tightly as she always did, hoping her expression looked intimidating. From across the room the suspect, James Holland, pointed his own gun back at her.<p>

"Drop it!" she bellowed. "Drop it now!" Holland sneered at her, and Natara adjusted her grip subtly.

It was hard being a female FBI agent. Sometimes people just didn't take you seriously. They thought of you as a girl pointing a gun, not an actual federal agent. Still, Natara didn't let that bother her; it just meant they were off guard.

She could feel Mal's presence next to her, his gun trained on Holland as well. She took comfort in knowing that he had her back and that she had his. Maybe that's why the department assigned partners, for the sense of security.

Sure, Mal could be impulsive and rash. In a way, she sort of found it endearing. He was always willing to put his neck on the line for her, and put his life in danger to save someone else's. He was easy to talk to, and definitely one of the more trustworthy people she knew.

"There's no point in running," Mal said calmly. "We know it was you who drugged Laurel Jennings and that it was you who placed her in her car and weighed down the gas pedal, sending it into the river."

She harbored a soft spot for Mal, something she would deny if ever asked about it. She'd already been in a romantic relationship with a coworker once, and she knew how that ended. She wasn't willing to take that chance and potentially ruin her relationship with Mal if it didn't work out.

Still, he made her feel special. She couldn't deny that. The way he looked at her, the way he said her name, that smile he only ever used around her... How couldn't a girl fall for that, she reasoned. And even when he glanced at her, just for a second, she could feel her pulse quicken.

She knew Mal was dangerous from the moment she met him. Not in the conventional "I run with wolves, kill humans for sport, and watch the Saw movies as if they're made for children" kind of way she usually dealt with. She knew he was dangerous in the way that she knew she would fall too hard and too fast for him if she wasn't careful. Looking back she knew that even though she had been careful, she still fell for him.

She would often find herself day-dreaming about him, another thing she would deny. Whenever she was alone in her apartment, she would allow herself to indulge her fantasies. What if she kissed him? That thought often crossed her mind. What would happen? Would they end up at his place and then the next morning they would act like it never happened? Would he act as if they were officially together, or would he just ignore it? Was she really willing to take that risk?

Holland was jerking his gun from Natara to Mal, and then back to Natara every few seconds. They knew he was dangerous, too; Mal had already called for back up.

"Put the gun down, and nobody has to get hurt," Natara said slowly, almost robotically. She began inching forward.

"No way," Holland barked, jerking his gun towards her, leveled at her chest. "No way in hell am I letting the two of you take me in."

"Easy, James," Mal cautioned, also slipping forward a few steps. "Let's all just take it easy, alright?"

"There's no use in running," Natara reminded him. "We've already got you cornered. There's nowhere you can run."

"Oh yeah?" he challenged, pulling back the hammer. "Well what if I shoot the both 'a ya? Then I can run."

"You don't want to do that," Mal growled as the gun was pointed back at him.

Natara sighed. Every once in a while she found herself in this position. She knew she should be alert, on her toes, but she was tired. All she wanted to do was curl up on her couch with a bowl of popcorn and watch a movie or two. It was just one of those days.

The man jerked his gun back and forth between the two of them, as if deciding who to shoot, and tightened his grip. He was jumpy, which neither of them liked; he might accidentally pull the trigger. Natara made sure to move slowly as she shifted, her muscles screaming from being in the firing position for so long

What happened next happened way too quickly. Natara heard the sirens from the squad cars pull up to the front of the building. She heard the crack of what sounded like thunder. She saw Mal jerk backwards, his blue shirt slowly turning red. She saw his legs buckle beneath him and heard his limp body his the floor. She heard the bangs of shot from her own gun. She felt the pistol kick back in her hand and saw James Holland drop as Mal had. All of these things Natara heard and saw, but her mind just couldn't comprehend.

_Check to see if Holland is still alive. Cuff him if he is. Get the gun away from him. Call for an ambulance. Bring him in._

That's all she could think. Her mind couldn't comprehend that Mal had been shot, even though she was looking right at him. Finally something snapped, and her gun slipped from her hands to the hard floor.

"Mal!" she shrieked, falling to her knees beside him. She landed in the quickly expanding pool of blood. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him hard. "Mal, wake up!"

The door burst open and officers charged in. Someone grabbed her arm and attempted to pull her away, but she yanked her arm free and threw herself across Mal's body.

"No!" she cried. "I have to wake him up!" She could barely feel the hot tears running down her cheeks.

"Natara!" Ken's stern voice fell on her ears. He pulled her up to a stand and pulled her away. Everything was moving so slowly for Natara. "He's gone, he's gone," Ken told her.

"No! He can't be! It's not fair!" She sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder. "It's not fair..."

"I know," he said, awkwardly wrapping his arms around her. Natara didn't care anymore. She didn't care that at least fifteen people were watching her have a meltdown in the middle of a crime scene.

"He was supposed to come into work tomorrow. He was supposed to joke with you and annoy me and solve cases. He was supposed to be alive," she sobbed.

"I know." That's all Ken said. Natara hated it. He didn't know. Didn't know anything. She pushed him away and tried to go to Mal again, to wake him up. He couldn't be dead! Paramedics were surrounding him now.

"No pulse... not breathing... bullet went straight through his heart... gone... dead..." Natara barely heard those words as she reached out for Mal again. A paramedic stopped her.

"Can someone please take this woman away?" she said.

"Get you hands off of me!" Natara snarled. "I'm a Federal Agent, and I need to wake him up! Let me go! I love him! He can't die yet, I love him! I was supposed to tell him! I can't be too late! I'm never late!" she babbled through her tears.

Ken gripped her arm and began pulling her away. She mutely followed him, too numb to put up a fight now. She did love him, she realized. She did and now he would never know. She should have taken the risk and been with him. Maybe all this would be different.

Maybe Ken wouldn't be leading her away, trying his best to comfort her in one way or another. Maybe she wouldn't be feeling like her head was about to explode. That her heart was about to give way. Maybe she wouldn't be hearing the paramedics giving up. Maybe she wouldn't be calling out Mal's name in agony.

"Natara?" Her legs gave out as she heard Mal's voice. Everything was a blur, but she could hear him calling her name. "Natara!" Everything faded out. Had her heart stopped too? Did it really stop with so much pain? Was she about to join Mal in heaven?

**_"Natara, wake up!"_**

"What?" Natara jerked backwards as she jolted awake, inadvertently dumping herself on the floor in the process. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the sleep from her eyes. She was still disoriented as she picked herself up from the floor.

"Are you okay?"

Natara turned and looked to her left. Mal was leaning against her desk, a genuine look of concern on his face as he stared down at her.

"You're alive?" she whispered in awe, still slightly disoriented.

"...Yeah..." he said cautiously. "You must have fallen asleep at your desk. When I came over here, you were saying my name over and over. I didn't want to wake you up but you looked really upset, and then you just stopped talking all of a sudden, and-"

Natara threw her arms around his neck and drank in the scent of his cologne. "You're alive," she whispered again, reveling in the fact. He was alive. It was all just a dream. He was alive and she could see him and feel him safe in her arms.

"Um, yeah," he said, awkwardly wrapping his arms around her. "What were you dreaming about, anyway?"

"You wouldn't wake up. I tried to make you wake up, but they wouldn't let me near you. I should've... I mean... they kept saying you were dead!" she babbled.

"It was just a dream, okay?" he said to her. "I'm alright, see? I'm perfectly fine."

"I was too late," she babbled on. "I was too late, and I didn't get to tell you." Natara knew she should just walk away, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Her dream had just seemed too real.

"Tell me what? What were you too late for?"

"I was too late to tell you that I love you."

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><p>Any thoughts? Comments? Flames? Anything?<p>

...

Bueller?


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